The Ten Gods: How Other Characters Relate to You
The ten relationships that decide whether another character is a friend, wealth or work to "you".
How are the Ten Gods decided?
Taking the Day Master as the standard, you look at whether another character's element is the same as yours, one you generate, one you restrain, one that restrains you, or one that generates you. Adding whether its yin-yang matches yours or differs gives ten relationships, which are called the Ten Gods (십신, 十神).
| Relationship | If the yin-yang is the same | If the yin-yang is different | Group |
|---|---|---|---|
| Same element as me | Friend (비견) | Rob Wealth (겁재) | Companions (비겁) |
| Element I generate | Eating God (식신) | Hurting Officer (상관) | Output (식상) |
| Element I restrain | Indirect Wealth (편재) | Direct Wealth (정재) | Wealth (재성) |
| Element that restrains me | Seven Killings (편관) | Direct Officer (정관) | Officer (관성) |
| Element that generates me | Indirect Resource (편인) | Direct Resource (정인) | Resource (인성) |
For example, for a 庚 (yang metal) Day Master, 丙 (yang fire) is an element that restrains me and has the same yin-yang, so it is the Seven Killings, and 丁 (yin fire) is the Direct Officer. 甲 (yang wood) is an element I restrain and has the same yin-yang, so it is Indirect Wealth.
Ten Gods lookup table by Day Master
Find your Day Master in the left column and the other character in the top row, and you get that character's Ten God. Every cell in the table was filled using Halmeoni's calculation rules.
| Day Master | 甲 | 乙 | 丙 | 丁 | 戊 | 己 | 庚 | 辛 | 壬 | 癸 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 甲 Gap | Friend (비견) | Rob Wealth (겁재) | Eating God (식신) | Hurting Officer (상관) | Indirect Wealth (편재) | Direct Wealth (정재) | Seven Killings (편관) | Direct Officer (정관) | Indirect Resource (편인) | Direct Resource (정인) |
| 乙 Eul | Rob Wealth (겁재) | Friend (비견) | Hurting Officer (상관) | Eating God (식신) | Direct Wealth (정재) | Indirect Wealth (편재) | Direct Officer (정관) | Seven Killings (편관) | Direct Resource (정인) | Indirect Resource (편인) |
| 丙 Byeong | Indirect Resource (편인) | Direct Resource (정인) | Friend (비견) | Rob Wealth (겁재) | Eating God (식신) | Hurting Officer (상관) | Indirect Wealth (편재) | Direct Wealth (정재) | Seven Killings (편관) | Direct Officer (정관) |
| 丁 Jeong | Direct Resource (정인) | Indirect Resource (편인) | Rob Wealth (겁재) | Friend (비견) | Hurting Officer (상관) | Eating God (식신) | Direct Wealth (정재) | Indirect Wealth (편재) | Direct Officer (정관) | Seven Killings (편관) |
| 戊 Mu | Seven Killings (편관) | Direct Officer (정관) | Indirect Resource (편인) | Direct Resource (정인) | Friend (비견) | Rob Wealth (겁재) | Eating God (식신) | Hurting Officer (상관) | Indirect Wealth (편재) | Direct Wealth (정재) |
| 己 Gi | Direct Officer (정관) | Seven Killings (편관) | Direct Resource (정인) | Indirect Resource (편인) | Rob Wealth (겁재) | Friend (비견) | Hurting Officer (상관) | Eating God (식신) | Direct Wealth (정재) | Indirect Wealth (편재) |
| 庚 Gyeong | Indirect Wealth (편재) | Direct Wealth (정재) | Seven Killings (편관) | Direct Officer (정관) | Indirect Resource (편인) | Direct Resource (정인) | Friend (비견) | Rob Wealth (겁재) | Eating God (식신) | Hurting Officer (상관) |
| 辛 Sin | Direct Wealth (정재) | Indirect Wealth (편재) | Direct Officer (정관) | Seven Killings (편관) | Direct Resource (정인) | Indirect Resource (편인) | Rob Wealth (겁재) | Friend (비견) | Hurting Officer (상관) | Eating God (식신) |
| 壬 Im | Eating God (식신) | Hurting Officer (상관) | Indirect Wealth (편재) | Direct Wealth (정재) | Seven Killings (편관) | Direct Officer (정관) | Indirect Resource (편인) | Direct Resource (정인) | Friend (비견) | Rob Wealth (겁재) |
| 癸 Gye | Hurting Officer (상관) | Eating God (식신) | Direct Wealth (정재) | Indirect Wealth (편재) | Direct Officer (정관) | Seven Killings (편관) | Direct Resource (정인) | Indirect Resource (편인) | Rob Wealth (겁재) | Friend (비견) |
A branch is looked up by the stem of its main energy. Replace 子 with 癸, 丑 with 己, 寅 with 甲, 卯 with 乙, 辰 with 戊, 巳 with 丙, 午 with 丁, 未 with 己, 申 with 庚, 酉 with 辛, 戌 with 戊 and 亥 with 壬, and find it in the table above. The same character has a different Ten God for each Day Master. 丙 is the Seven Killings for a 庚 Day Master, but the Eating God for a 甲 Day Master and Indirect Wealth for a 壬 Day Master.
Reading the Ten Gods of the example chart
The Day Master of someone born in Seoul at 00:50 on 25 August 2001 (辛巳·丙申·庚申·丙子) is 庚. Looking at the remaining characters one by one gives the following. Branches take their Ten God from the main energy, and the Ten Gods of the hidden stems inside them are listed separately in the right-hand column.
| Position | Character | Relationship to 庚 | Ten God | Ten Gods of the hidden stems |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year stem | 辛 | Same metal, different yin-yang | Rob Wealth (겁재) | — |
| Year branch | 巳 (main energy 丙) | Fire that restrains me, same yin-yang | Seven Killings (편관) | 戊 Indirect Resource, 庚 Friend, 丙 Seven Killings |
| Month stem | 丙 | Fire that restrains me, same yin-yang | Seven Killings (편관) | — |
| Month branch | 申 (main energy 庚) | Same metal, same yin-yang | Friend (비견) | 戊 Indirect Resource, 壬 Eating God, 庚 Friend |
| Day stem | 庚 | Myself | — | — |
| Day branch | 申 (main energy 庚) | Same metal, same yin-yang | Friend (비견) | 戊 Indirect Resource, 壬 Eating God, 庚 Friend |
| Hour stem | 丙 | Fire that restrains me, same yin-yang | Seven Killings (편관) | — |
| Hour branch | 子 (main energy 癸) | Water I generate, different yin-yang | Hurting Officer (상관) | 壬 Eating God, 癸 Hurting Officer |
Counting the seven visible characters gives Seven Killings 3, Friend 2, Rob Wealth 1 and Hurting Officer 1. By group, that is Officer 3, Companions 3 and Output 1, with no Wealth or Resource on the surface. Including the hidden stems, 戊 (Indirect Resource) is hidden inside 巳 and both 申, and 壬 (Eating God) inside both 申 and 子. So Halmeoni records Wealth as no wealth star (무재), absent even from the hidden stems, and Resource as no resource star (무인성), present only in the hidden stems, keeping the two apart. The reading material includes counts such as "Seven Killings: 3" along with the positions, year branch, month stem and hour stem, so the AI writing the reading does not recount the numbers.
When Ten Gods gather, named configurations can also form. In this chart there is Hurting Officer restrains the Seven Killings (상관제살), in which the Hurting Officer of the hour branch 子 restrains the two Seven Killings among the stems (丙 of the month stem and hour stem), and binding the Seven Killings (합살) appears twice, as the year stem 辛 (Rob Wealth) combines with the 丙 (Seven Killings) of the month stem and of the hour stem in turn. The Eating God 壬 is only in the hidden stems, so Eating God restrains the Seven Killings (식신제살) is recorded as "hidden stems only." Such configurations sometimes set the direction of a reading more than any single Ten God, and their conditions are gathered in the article "Structural Patterns".
What each of the Ten Gods means
| Ten God | Plain meaning |
|---|---|
| Friend (비견) | Energy like mine. Friends, colleagues, siblings, pride |
| Rob Wealth (겁재) | Energy similar to mine but competing. Rivals, the urge to win |
| Eating God (식신) | Energy I produce. Talent, good fortune with food, ease |
| Hurting Officer (상관) | Energy I show. A way with words, wit, not being tied to a mould |
| Indirect Wealth (편재) | Money and chances moved on a large scale. A lover (for a man) |
| Direct Wealth (정재) | Steadily earned money and the household. A wife (for a man) |
| Seven Killings (편관) | Pressure and responsibility that drive me hard. A lover (for a woman) |
| Direct Officer (정관) | Rules, a job and honour that keep me on the right path. A husband (for a woman) |
| Indirect Resource (편인) | Unusual learning and intuition |
| Direct Resource (정인) | Elders who look after me, study, documents |
The interpretation that Wealth stands for a spouse in men and Officer stands for a spouse in women is a convention of traditional myeongni studies. Halmeoni follows this tradition too, but if you do not choose a gender, it speaks of a spouse without relying on gender.
Reading by the five groups
| Group | Ten Gods | What it is compared to in life | Traditional family correspondence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Companions (비겁) | Friend, Rob Wealth | People on my side, colleagues and competition, independence | Siblings, friends |
| Output (식상) | Eating God, Hurting Officer | Expression, talent, speech, eating and enjoyment | Children, for a woman |
| Wealth (재성) | Indirect Wealth, Direct Wealth | Wealth, the household, a sense of reality, results | Father; the spouse, for a man |
| Officer (관성) | Seven Killings, Direct Officer | Work, rules, responsibility, honour | The spouse, for a woman; children, for a man |
| Resource (인성) | Indirect Resource, Direct Resource | Learning, documents and qualifications, being cared for | Mother |
The family correspondences are a convention of old myeongni studies. The only thing Halmeoni counts separately by gender is the spouse Ten God, and it uses the other correspondences only as clues for a reading. The groups also connect with the flow of the Five Elements. Companions generate Output, Output generates Wealth, Wealth generates Officer, Officer generates Resource, and Resource in turn generates Companions (you). So when a group is plentiful, we also look at whether its strength flows on to the next group or is blocked.
Roles, not good and bad
The Seven Killings is pressure, but it can become a force that tempers a person, and Rob Wealth is a rival, but it can be the source of the urge to win. The Ten Gods are not a list of good things and bad things; they are a map showing which roles take up how much room in your life.
Common misconceptions
- Direct (正) is good and indirect (偏) is bad: direct and indirect differ only in whether the yin-yang is different or the same. Indirect Wealth is the energy of earning big and spending big, and Direct Wealth the energy of saving steadily; they differ in texture, not in rank.
- The Seven Killings, Rob Wealth and Hurting Officer are unlucky characters: these are just names written harshly in old books. When the Day Master is on the strong side, as in the example chart, the Seven Killings actually becomes a favourable element.
- No Wealth means no money: Wealth is only a role within the eight characters you were born with, and it is different from actual assets. Halmeoni reads no wealth star (무재) as a chart that meets the energy of wealth through timing, and points out the Luck Cycles and years in which Wealth arrives.
Frequently asked questions
- How are Friend and Rob Wealth different? Both are the same element as you, but Friend, which shares your yin-yang too, is seen as closer to a colleague walking side by side, and Rob Wealth, with different yin-yang, as closer to a rival competing for the same thing. In the example chart, the two 申 are Friend and 辛 is Rob Wealth.
- Is the Day Master included in the Ten God counts? No. The Day Master is the standard, so it is left out, and the remaining seven characters (five if the time is unknown) are counted.
- Why are the Ten Gods of the hidden stems counted separately? They are energies that show less than the visible characters, so counting them with the same weight would make the chart look bigger than it really is. Halmeoni bases things on the count of visible characters and speaks of hidden stems separately, as in "only in the hidden stems."
- Do the characters of Luck Cycles and years work the same way? Yes. A stem is taken as it is, and a branch by its main energy, to decide the Ten God. For the example chart, in 2026, a 丙午 year, the stem 丙 is the Seven Killings and the branch 午 (main energy 丁) is the Direct Officer.